I wrote a whole entire blog with an explanation of the purpose of my surgery, but once I wrote it and Karl read it we realized that it didn’t work. It had too much info about everything. So after pondering what to say, I will give the explanation in three sentences.

I have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and auto immune disease where the body attacks the thyroid until it eventually dies, basically. It has been basically impossible to get my thyroid levels under control and I have had an array of health problems because of it. After meeting with an endocrynologist, a women’s health specialist, and ear nose throat doc and even an integrated medicine doc, they all agreed surgery was a good decision for me.

The surgery was scheduled and my confidence in what ultimately became my choice was greater every day.

The day of the surgery arrived and I was really nervous. Krysta and Karen arrived to wish me luck with this:

a hand made knit dolly! She has been making so many of them… well she has made a bunch of them for so many other people, it meant SO much to me that she made it!

One last shot at home, of my swollen scar free neck.

We arrived and did a few labs, and got checked in. It was a surprisingly long wait. We waited and waited and were finally admitted to the surgery waiting area.

They had me change out of my cloths into a gown. Karl and I tried to guess how big and where my scar would be.

Karl’s guess.

My guess.

After waiting for almost two and a half hours, the nurse came in and hooked me up to an IV.

Then they put these sweet things on my legs. They were supposed to make sure that I didn’t get blood clots in my legs.

I was all hooked up with saline electrolyte solution and leg squeezers. Then we waited another hour and a half or so.

They finally came in and got me. Saying goodbye to Karl was really scary. I was suddenly overcome by total fear. I couldn’t stop the tears. I was taken into anther holding area to talk to the epidemiologist. I sat quietly and cried. A half an hour later I was wheeled into the operating room.
It was easily the most terrifying room I had ever been in. My name was written on a big white board, with the phrase, “complete thyroidectamy” written under it. There was terrible honky tonk music on in there. The ceiling tiles were stained and there was a table with sharp implements they were going to use on me. Everyone was wearing masks and hairnets. They moved me onto the operating table. It was really cold in there. They strapped me down to the table, and kept calling me Allison, which was weird because really only Karl calls me that. The last thing I remember is the anesthesiologist coming in. I watched him put some clear liquid into my IV, then nothing.

What seemed like no time at all I was awake in recovery. I kept asking to see Karl. My doctor came in and said everything had gone well and that he would come and see me tomorrow. This is Karl’s first sight of me after surgery.

There is it! The finished up neck. Karl was about right in his prediction.

I had been out of surgery a couple of hours when Krysta, Karen and Alicia came to visit. It was then they brought me the dolly Krysta made. We asked Karen what we should name her. She paused, thought for a minute and said, “Birdie.” Which I thought was perfect.

My staple items while I was in the hospital: Veggie broth, orange jello, and water.

At about 10 pm I was really wanting to get up so Karl took me on a walk. We went around the nurses station a few times and they said if I felt up to it I could go down to the cafeteria.

All around our room were little pictures of kids in scrums reminding us to be quiet.

Eventually we made it on our walk.

Here we are outside of my room. We got a chocolate milk shake. It felt really good on my throat. It was the most food I had eaten in hours.

A few things about the room: It is TINY. Still I didn’t share it with another patient which was nice. The pic below is of my TV / Nurse call control. Two buttons to keep it simple. I kept accidentally hitting the nurses button. Also, the one TV button was lame. You could only go up in stations. If you missed what you wanted to see, you would have to go through all the stations, turn the TV off, then start at the bottom again.

My view for 24 hours:

At least there was a window behind me. It did face a wall, but there was natural light.
Me, Birdie, and my ice pack. Also my oxygen tube. It really itched my nose.

Here is Karl in his bed.


He stayed with me the whole time. He is such a trooper. I told him he could go home and get some sleep. He said, “I’m not going to fall for that.”

By 11:30 the next morning I was starving. They had kept me on a clear liquid diet despite telling me I could eat whatever I wanted. So Karl went down to the cafeteria and brought us some corn dogs.

Hand breaded and delicious!

Finally around 1:30 my doc arrived and gave me the green light to go home. They removed my IV.

We were excited to be going outside!

Me, my flowers, and Liz.

After a quick drive, we were home:

I love being home.

Post op info: Everything is going great! Karl stayed home with me all weekend, and my mom came up from California to take care of me. I just got back from my post op appointment and everything seems to be fine. I am still really tired dizzy, but no major complications! Thank you all for your love, support and prayers! They have been felt.